Tuesday, December 22, 2009

I recently purchased mark-my-time bookmarks, and I love them! The Mark-My-Time Bookmark is a flexible plastic bookmark and has a timer at the top. I got one for each of my kids.

My kids have to do at least 20 minutes of reading per night for homework, and these bookmarks are perfect for that. It’s also great because the bookmark/timer always stays in the book they are currently reading. No lost timers when it is time to sit down and read.

Another really cool thing about the timers is that they have two different ways that they can be set. There is a count down setting where you put in the amount of time that you want to read, and it will beep when you are done. And they have a count up feature where you start the timer and press stop it when you are done and it will tell you the total time read. Very cool! And you can pause the timer for snack or potty breaks. The two different settings make it great for everyone because kids who love to read can use the count up feature to know how long they have read, and reluctant readers can use the countdown feature so they can meet their minimum times.

I think the best part is that the kids are now timing themselves. There is no more “Am-I-done-yet? How-much-longer?” type questions from my reluctant reader. You are done when the timer beeps. And I don’t have to keep watching the time for my child who loves to read to know the amount of time to write down on the reading log from school. I just look number on the timer when she is finished.

Reading is a really important skill for kids to develop; it is necessary to do well in most of the other subjects. And like anything, the way to improve is by practicing. I love that my kids now have an easy way of timing their practice. And I love that it’s stress-free for me!

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